First 100 Days

I hate to indulge the "first 100 days" silliness. FDR was sworn in on March 9, 1937 giving him 3 more months to prepare. Thus, any comparisons to FDR's first 100 are not apropos.

Yet, let's indulge ourselves just for fun. Obama has been remarkable. Let's say there's a legitimate argument about Obama's policy achievements (which have been many), it is unquestionable that he has shown all the traits of great leadership. Look at the 7 Hs of Highly Effective People (be proactive; know where you want to go; put first things first; think win-win; Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood; Synergize;Being Balanced). Obama is the poster child for these traits. In the most challenging times since the depression. Obama has dealt with ever issue with confidence. He has taken a commending presense on the U.S. and World stage while still listening and learning. He's allowed dissent and debate but then has showed resolve when making decisions.

All of this is made even more impressive when one remembers the primary knock on Obama during the election. Remember that Obama was supposed to be "too inexperienced" and not tough enough for the job. Can anyone - even those who disagree with his policies- say that now even after just 100 days? OK. Let's give him an A.

Inauguration Thoughts

Some rambling thoughts on my trip to the Inauguration
≠≠Sunday:
8:00pm – We get in from Miami about 1.5 hours late. Weird. Airport is mobbed so we rush for a cab expecting a huge wait. Nothing. We get in; zoom from Dulles to the heart of D.C. with zero traffic and in record time. Staying at the Holiday Inn. OK I’m a snob. But it is so in the heart of things. Everyone, from the staff to guests is just overjoyed. I’ve been in places that were happy (burning man, certain concerts, parties). But never a whole city with the same vibe. – Everyone is celebrating – guests, hotel clerks, bus drivers, people on the street.

10pm – We meet Eddie and a various SF people who have gathered in town. Lot’s of people who worked on the campaign or not. Regardless, people are swapping stories, sharing hopes for the future. Very festive. Lots of people on the town on Sunday in D.C., which I assume is rare.

1:30am. So it turns out that Metro closes at midnight not 2am as we were told at the hotel, so we have to walk back. Very cold but not horrible. Angela finds it invigorating, I find it, just cold.. We through the mall and see the Wash Momentum and Capital building shining at night. I never remember them being this bright. Angela and I jump around and feel the awe and splendor of the Capital.

8:00Am. We get up. Another night without sleep. Gather my mother her friends to go get our tickets. Most are 70 year plus and lifetime party activists. All Clinton supporters, but all jazzed. You think we’ve been waiting for a long time to be inspired? They’ve been waiting since Kennedy. They have more energy and commitment and a room full of Move.on activists. And they keeping the party do the hard work of keeping the party together through good and bad. . . They get good seats and ball tickets – and deserve it.

10AM. I’ve got a conference call with Europe. It’s goes an hour because we spend the first 30 minutes talking about Obama. These Europeans are just as excited as we are – talking about how they were crying on election night just like we were. We are the world? Get dressed and go for my Obama SF t-shirt. Turns out I grabbed my Red Sox World Series shirt instead. Exact same colors – I swear. This means that every Masshole in D.C. has to talk to me. Fucking sox.

11:00 – I walk over the to Capital where Angela mom and friends have secured out tickets. Angela’s been palling around with the one family friend who’s not 70. Turns out he knew my dad who helped him out of checking kiting scheme. Classic. Almost no lines. We meet at the Russell Senate Building. Short security line to get in. Take lots of pictures in the hall of the senate, then we head down to the basement to eat at the Senate cafeteria. Of course there is nothing special about the Senate cafeteria. But it feels special – everything feels special. When we leave, lines around the block.

2:00pm: We head over to RFK stadium for a public service event. The walk from the Metro to the stadium is basically a flea market with only Obama stuff. I didn’t see Obama TP, but that’s all that’s missing. We are putting together 75,000 care packages for the troops. Nice idea – way too many people. Like an old public works project – dig a whole and then fill it in. Way more would have been done with 10% of the people. That being said, people recognize that they have to stay involved and as a symbol of their commitment it works well. I heard that overall the number of volunteers across the country was way up and the Peace core had its biggest recruitment day ever.

8:30. I meet with family, while Angela heads over to the NetRoots party. She sees half of san-francisco, including James girlfriend – who ends up crashing the most a-list party in town (Huffington). She comes home at 1 just having caught the last metro train, which still stops at midnight. (You can’t get a cab to our hotel – the whole area is blocked off)

Tuesday.

7AM. We get up. Not wake up – we’ve been up all night. THIS IS THE BIG DAY! We can barely stand it. I go down to the lobby to “grab a quick coffee.” No luck. Everyone in the world is in the lobby.
8:15 Angela, my mom, Mary and I head off. Total madness. There is almost no instructions on where to go. A few volunteers and security milling around, but nobody knows anything. We head off, fight through the crowd - f in the wrong direction. Then fight back in the right direction. People heading in every direction. Mary, it turns out, can move through a crowd, and leads the way.

8:45 We somehow get to the blue gate, which is designed to let people in incredibly slowly. The line is around the block. Mary makes an executive decision – we cut the line. I mean just blatantly cut. (Turns out there was a better way to cut that I’m mad I didn’t figure out until later). We wait and wait in the cold. We barely move – seriously. By 10:45 the gates have been open 3 hours, we’re been in line for 2, and we’ve only moved ½ the distance. Inauguration at 12, and I’m thinking we’re not getting there. I’ve got a radio, and all I hear what a great mood everyone’s in despite the lines. Frankly, people I’m with are getting pretty pissed. Shouts of “let us in” can be heard.

By the way, it is damn cold. My hands would be freezing off but for the hand warmer chemical cocktail that I bought at CVS. My feet are killing me and I wish I had put those hand warmers in my sneakers. I convince myself that that the fact that my toes hurt means that they’re not frost bitten.

11:30. As we get close to the gate, things move quickly and we get through. We run to capital and get there a few minutes later. Get pretty good place on some stairs and can see pretty well through our binoculars (at-least we can see the jumbotron well). Once you’re in, the good mood returns. Some guy on the wall in front is volunteering to take pictures. People are laughing, swapping stories. A genuine love in.

11:45: The important people are starting to arrive on the stage. The feeling is electric. People cheer (OK scream) when they walk out and when they’re announced. Pelosi, Feinstein, and Reid receive big pop. Clintons? People go nuts. Michele and girls – people loose it.
11:50 – We all know what’s next. People are fidgeting, crying. The expectation is over whelming. I keep hearing Ed Sullivan saying “Ladies and Gentleman - The Beatles!” Actually, the analogy is not far off. The Beatles succeeded based on phenomenal talent, but the nation was primed, ready to break with the past. What people lacked was a vision of what that next step looked like. Turns out, the future looked like the Beatles. Obama walks out the door and just stands there. It’s Kennedy and Beatles in one. People loose it. Obama’s announced – the future just walked on stage.
11:55. Warren gives his invocation. About as ecumenical as you’re going to get from an evangelical. Starts with a quote from the Hebrew scriptures – the SHMA no less (central tenant of Jewish practice). Talks about service, when he says Jesus (in many languages), he clearly prays for himself, not others.
12:04. the botched swearing in. I originally thought the sound system went out for a second.
12:15. The speech. A little hard to hear with all the different speakers echoing, plus cops tell us to move from the stairs – after being there for an hour. That being said, have you ever hear 1.5 million people shut up at once? The same crowd that booed Bush and Chaney and sang “nah, nah, nah, hey, hey, good bye” Obama holds everyone.

After the speech people start leaving. The Bush is leaving via helicopter. When people realize it they start cheering. The copter is right over our heads – and low. I swear I could have hit it with a baseball. If the copter broke down, it would fall right on top of us. My mother was at Clinton’s first and she says the only thing she remembers is Bush I taking off. Nice symmetry.


We make our way against the current to the senate Building for a reception with Kerry/Kennedy. There not there, as turns out, b/c of the whole seizure thing. Bored, Angela and I take off.

1:30. City’s still cut up so even walking home is a challenge. We go through a tunnel that cuts across the mall. Have to get out of the way, while ambulances go bye. Turns out it was Kennedy. We get various scenes of the parade. Inauguration

2:30 Finally get home. Our hotel is one of the closest to the parade and everyone wants to use the lobby. Only lucky guests of the holiday get in. Watch CNN/MSNBC non-stop. Watch the speech again. It’s brilliant. He ditched the teary eyed stuff. (Catch his Philly speech for that). What he presents is a clear eyed sustained critique of the political dialectic of the past 30 years. The choices we’ve been presented by the left and right were presented as false choices. (big gov v. small; free market v. government control; security v. freedom). With Bush there, it seemed like a critique of him. It was, but the left is equally as guilty of simplifying the world through it’s own prism. The arguments were ultimately childish distractions that kept us from getting the job done.

Where we will find the moral guidance once our false dichotomy is gone? From the values of our nation’s founding. Obama cited Washington not Lincoln, which surprised people. Obama was channeling Lincoln but just didn’t mention his name. Obama followed the structure and arguments Lincoln used in his first major anti slavery speech against Douglas. Clocking in at over 3 hours, Lincoln did not use narrow constitutional law or “higher law” as some did to attach slavery as others had done. Instead he called slavery as inconsistent with purpose of the founding. Yet, he refused to demonize, saying that if Northerners were born in the South they would support slavery as well. The speech, praised by supporters and opponents alike, set Lincoln on the course to the Presidency and healed a nation. What both Lincoln and Obama did was use the founder's words to transend the politics of the day.

10:00. With no ball tickets (a drag), we meet Eddie for dinner and Adams’ Morgan. Really dead, but by the time we leave ball goers are returning home. We get home at 1pm for our nightly 4 hours of sleep. Really wish I was more aggressive on the ball ticket. Why I’m not sure. But I think we all new the real world was right around the corner and wanted to stay in the warmth of the Obama bubble that much longer.

Wed. 5AM. We’re up again and off to the airport. Way earlier than we need to be but who knew.

6Am dulles. I notice someone staring at us. Actually laughing at Angela with matching Obama hat and scarf. I call out – “you like the hat?” We start chatting with the woman – It’s Jamie Lee Curtis. She’s chatty and trying to be normal but doesn’t actually seem to know how to go through the airport. No worries, the TSA does everything for her. (yes this is a strange ending).

8AM - Flying into Canada. For years, I’ve always thought of Canada as kinder gentler U.S. Maybe it’s a true (or not) as ever. But it doesn’t feel that way that way now. Can a country change in 24 hours?

11Am Watching Canadian news from Toronto. Not quite the all Obama fest of CNN but O’s the lead the story. If you didn’t know better you’d think he’d was Prime Minster.
10:30. Sleep.

Thursday
Dinner with Canadian colleges. For the first time in years, I don’t have to apologize for being an American. They want a new America as much as we do. For once, we get what we want.

1.23.08 David
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Christmas, Hanukkah, and the Audacity of Hope

Why Christmas Matters This Year

Christmas matters this year. This is an odd statement coming from a practicing Jew, so I’ll say Hanukkah matters as well.

Most years I don’t think about Christmas but for the nicety of holiday revelers and the extra time off. But the joy is missing. I work downtown, and normally holiday crowds are cheerful. This year, there are no crowds and people don’t look happy. Even loaded with gifts, bought at ridiculously low prices, shoppers seem more worried and less joyful as if they know that this buying spree may be the last form of lightness before even darker times. The time off is not comforting either. The days off and easy work schedule seem less like a relief than a harbinger of slow business to come. The world actually seems darker – not just spiritually, but physically as well. The night looks blank.


And so this is Christmas in 2008? With the normal joy gone, why does the holiday seem more poignant? Because the essential message about an improbable rebirth in a time of darkness is a message needed more than ever. At the darkest time of the year, the most lifeless, the salvation of humanity appears. It appears in the form of someone helpless (a baby) born to people not only of humble means but homeless who are on the run for evading taxes. The rebirth comes not through the power of armies or the uprising of the proletariat but through a message of peace – a command not only to love thy neighbor but thy enemy. Clearly this is not a salvation of armies but of the mind and spirit.

Hanukkah is a rebirth story of different kind, although the message is not so obvious. I was studying Hanukkah with Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe last week in the Mission over tocas. We were discussing why Hanukkah mattered at all. It is the only major historical holiday for which there is no biblical book or reference (the book of Maccabees upon which the story is based does not appear in the Hebrew scriptures). The story itself is not simple tale of joy with its bloody description of civil war between Jews and guerilla warfare against the Greeks. The time of year is not considered sacred and there is no prohibition against work. (Greenberg “The Jewish Way”). Yet, the holiday’s customs are much discussed in the Talmud, which also includes many stories not found in the book of Macabees. The Talmudic telling of Hanukkah focuses less on the celebration of a military victory but on rebirth of a nation and a people in a time of darkness. The rebirth, unlike Christmas, is practical, social, and political. It is complicated and wrought by men not God. (There are no miracles or even a mention of God’s activities in the book of Macabbees and the 8 days of oil was first discussed 500 years later).

With there different emphases, Christmas (spiritual) and Hanukkah (practical) provide a complete model for rebirth in times of darkness. Both have another aspect in common; the rebirth that these holidays seek is not the restoration of the natural order but radical change in the natural order. We know that the Christmas holiday was based on a various pagan, winter solstice holidays. The pagan sun god Mithra’s birthday was 12/25 as and the Roman holiday Saturnalia began a week before 12/25 and featured gift giving and wreaths to name but two examples. The purpose of these holidays was to reassure people that the natural order would continue – light and plants would return in the spring. This purpose is similar to the other winter holiday on the Jewish calendar, Tu BiSh'vat. Celebrated in January when the first signs of almond sprouts appear in Jerusalem, the holiday puts Jews on notice that nature will once again bring fourth the bounty to which we are accustomed.

Christmas and Hanukah implore us to reach not for a rebirth that that is expected but onis e that impossible. A poor man from a homeless family on the run from the taxman is not a paradigm hero (let alone savior). And a small band of guerrilla warriors simply do not successfully rebel against the world’s premier power of the time (the Greeks). There is no empirical reason to believe such things are possible. But these holidays provide us stories that remind us that we can transcend the ordinary and expected; that the way things are now or the way things are naturally is not the way they have they have to be or should be.

The stories are finally about the audacity of hope. Which brings me back, as so many things do for me this year, to Barrack Obama. His improbably victory (did anyone ever think a mixed race black man would be president in our lifetime) reminds us that the impossible can happen. As importantly we don’t have to settle for what were told “has to be.”

My wife Angela recently told me that this Christmas seems very small. She’s right. In good times, the “rebirth in darkness stories” are easy to ignore. Not now. As odd as it is for this Jew to admit it, we need Christmas this year.

Ron Howard’s Happy Lie: Nixon/Frost Movie Review

Ron Howard’s Nixon/Frost has much to recommend it. Creating a compelling drama that propels the watcher forward without the resorting to standards tricks such as action or romance certainly speaks well for the director. Howard also draws nuanced depictions of his two protagonists, refusing to make them into stock characters. The movie also does a nice job with its theme about how the power of television to crystallize a moment both illustrates and simplifies history.

Yet when dealing with real life events, especially those so relevant to the present, I think Howard owes audiences something more – he’s owes them honestly. I’m not talking about the slavish re-creation of facts, but the depiction of events and characters rings true in the overall sense if not in the details. Howard fails.

Howard portrays Nixon as a modern tragic figure – more sinned against than sin-ed. Nixon is brilliant, shrewd, and driven in Howard’s world. Yes, he’s a little crazy and yes he goes over the line – but who wouldn’t after spending your life being told by Ivory Tower elitists that you’re not good enough. Nixon’s “regret” that he let the American people down comes off as sincere.

This portraying is misleading and dangerous. Nixon was paranoid and ruthlessly persecuted enemies real and perceived. He would say and do anything to keep in power. Nixon’s cynical “southern strategy,” using racism to get democratic votes, set up the wedge politics that have lead to years of political stagnation. He spied on Americans, invaded countries in the express contradiction to federal law. This total abrogation of the public trust began a deep cynicism by the American people that continues to this day and has allowed Republics to rule so badly but stay in power. These are among the many malfeasances ignored by the movie.

The movie is dishonest but also dangerous. Nixon’s abuses of power should remind us that the current President has recreated the imperial presidency. Bush, while not paranoid, punished his enemies. Bush showed similar disdain for the law believing, like Nixon, that what the president does is the law. Howard’s psychological excuses of Nixon tend to provide an excuse the current president’s wrongdoing.

What is more disconcerting is that Howard’s deception is unnecessary. Nixon is a complicated enough tat he can be portrayed without being a stock villain. An honest portrayal would have in no way diminished Howard’s mediation on the TV’s ability to exemplify and simplify. It seems that Howard needed to graft a more positive spin on the story. Why? Could it just be for ratings? Or does Howard need to impose his optimism on the story? If so, he should pick other subjects that lend themselves to his theme without distorting the facts.

I don’t believe artists owe the public a particular story or a particular point of view. But when they do tell a story, they should do so honestly. And when they use recent facts they have a responsibility not to mislead the public.